Question I need a new laptop. New/used. What to look for, what to avoid?

[mike the car guy]

Yes, I've seen the "Buying a new laptop" sticky, but it doesn't really fit. I'm more interested in general models of what to look for or avoid. The most recent one, a Dell-inspiron-3558 is an absolute turkey, even after Colif and others helped when the HD started to fail. The touchpad doesn't even work right, left side is ok, right side I have to hit with a hammer.

Do I need a name brand? I saw one last night on Amazon I'd never heard of that looked pretty good. Should I wait for Win 11, I hate 10 with a passion, 11 might be better, or not. What series are good or bad, are all Inspiron bad or just the one I got? Are Latitudes generally good, or should I avoid Dell. I'm not a power user, not a gamer, but I do have a lot of stuff. Now this might morph into my wife's too, or additionally and it sees regular use, lightweight, internet is the most taxing, but mine only sees a few weeks a year use. The projected laptop, not me and PCs, I'm always on one. Any years that are bad or I should avoid, I might go used, or max age. Or is that a really bad idea? Minimum speed/number of cores? Memory in G? Again, not a gamer, probably closer to a business use, even though it's personal, but I'd like decent speed/performance. 14" screen is kind of an odd need for me, which shouldn't, but might affect other things.

Last one I bought new I looked at in the store, but you can't tell much more, if anything more, in the store with no internet or the programs that you actually use, than you can on the 'net.

Yeah, there's a bunch of stuff here, but I figure you get the gist of it, generalities more than anything.

 

[Darkbreeze]

These days, I tend to stick to laptops sold by Lenovo, HP or Acer. Dell has become a disappointment compared to how they used to be and most all of the others are either troubled or overpriced for what you are getting, and then there's the funky-named Chinese off brands which I personally wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. When a brand isn't known there is usually a reason for it, at least when it comes to computer hardware and laptops, regardless of where it comes from.

If a laptop isn't sold by a company named Apple, Microsoft, Lenovo, HP, Acer, Dell, ASUS, MSI, Razer, Samsung, LG, Google or Alienware, I'd probably avoid it. I may have left somebody worthwhile out but those are the main players, and of those, I'd personally make every effort to ensure it was a Lenovo or HP first, Acer second and everybody else third, assuming the astronomical expense of Apple products AND the ginormous PITA of owning one of their products, puts them out of the conversation.

How much are you wanting, or willing, to spend on a laptop?

 

[mike the car guy]

Lenovo, HP or Acer. Interesting, I wouldn't have guessed that. Apple is a non starter, I've got too much MS software for one thing, although Win 10 has tempted me towards Apple. I suspected what you said about the off names, but hadn't really heard it. Price? I'm hoping to keep it under 500-550, I don't need a Ferrari, but I don't want a Yugo either. Again, it's so hard to tell without a few hours of keyboard time, but especially in a laptop, feel is so important, and I'm hoping to avoid a disaster like the last one.

 

[Darkbreeze]

What were the main problems with the last one, what was done to try and fix those problems and how long did you have that unit for or when was it purchased?

 

[mike the car guy]

Main problem? Probably Windows 10.

It always ran slow, from the day I got it, ~4 years ago. The mousepad doesn't even have a good feel to it, plus it's so far to the left it's uncomfortable for this right hander to use. And it's slow. Slowed even more by MS constant updates. Early this year it was getting intolerable even for my wife and while troubleshooting the HD died. So it's got a new SSD, 8G memory instead of 4 and while it boots much faster now, it's still a slow turd. Really, I prefer using my ancient 2005 entry level Toshiba which chokes on most anything internet. The mousepad really is a big issue. But trying to use my old Toshiba now is like trying to commute on the freeway in a Model T. The Dell I hate is my wife's now and she's more tolerant of it's shortcomings, but really I need two. Same thing would be great, but I'd want to play with the new one for a while first to make sure I didn't get stuck with 2 turkeys.

I've thought of waiting for Win 11 to be widespread, hoping I'll like it better than 10, but my laptop doesn't see much use so used is a reasonable option.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Pretty much ALL 15" or larger laptops on the market these days all have the mousepad to the left of center by a fair margin. It's practically unavoidable anymore.

 

[mike the car guy]

For an assortment of reasons, including that one, I'll be targeting 14". Maybe 13. Even though they seem to command a premium.

 

[Darkbreeze]

So, I'm not necessarily saying THESE are the exact models you should target, or even that you should target anything specifically, but I think for your requirements and desires, and the criteria you've posed, something along the lines of these is what you ought to be at least loosely considering in your search. In your search you should probably be targeting something with a 1080p display, that has some kind of 256-500GB NVME M.2 SSD (A standard SATA SSD would be ok too if all else was equal and the price was right), 8GB or more of RAM and either a 10th or 11th Gen i5 or a 5000 series Ryzen processor. Those are in line with what you should be able to expect, and get, in a 13-14 inch laptop for between 500 and 550 dollars, give or take some change. These might be worth considering.

I only linked Lenovo units because they matched both the desired criteria and the price range. Certainly there ought to be HP and Acer units, Dell too if you're willing to go with them again, that also meet the criteria. I wouldn't rule out Samsung or LG if you come across one of their models that meets the criteria either. ASUS, MSI, Alienware, etc., I'd probably just avoid out of hand because those are mostly going to be targeted towards gamers and to be honest, those type of machines tend to not have long productive lives due to the extreme nature of the hardware they stuff inside them because they are rarely adequately cooled enough to support a long lifespan.

https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-IdeaPad-Laptop-i5-1035G1-Platinum/dp/B08W4PJC8J/

https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-IdeaPad-Processor-Graphics-82KT00AMUS/dp/B09BG841VC?th=1

 

[mike the car guy]

Thanks Darkbreeze, that's useful. Gives me some direction, especially on Mfr, processor and memory, although it seems these days the standard answer on memory is more. I was hoping for more input from others, but it gives me something to work with, which I didn't have except knowing my last purchase was a disaster. I've had a couple of Latitudes at work, well configured, and they seemed ok although I didn't use them much, but it seems like 10 year old ones that are in my target price range and while I'm not afraid of used, I don't want that used.

I should add, I'm emphatically not sold on or a fan of Dell, but it seems like they're the dominate player in the market, kind of the 800 pound gorilla in the room that's hard to ignore.

 

[Darkbreeze]

It depends, really, on what you are doing with the machine or device. Generally we like to see 16GB or more on desktop systems and such but truthfully, most people running an entry level or even lower mid tiered laptop are usually not running intensive scientific programs or editing enormous movie or photo files regularly. So for most people, 8GB is good enough. 16GB would of course be preferred, and if you do run any particularly extensive and demanding applications, even more than 16GB might be useful but if you are mainly using the internet and running light office apps and such, 8GB is usually sufficient.

 

[mike the car guy]

Yeah, this would be an on the road machine, not high intensity, a month a year or so. Really my old XP Toshiba from 2005 would be adequate if not for the internet. OK, barely adequate, but tolerable. A bit of the office suite, looking at pics and editing. Not demanding. I just don't want to throw money away on a total POS like the Dell I got 4 years ago.

Now I'd like to be on the road on vacation a few months a year instead of weeks, but if I could afford that I wouldn't be sweating the details on a new PC!

 

[Darkbreeze]

True. Totally agree with that.

Truth is, Dell might be ONE of the gorillas in the room, but generally speaking it's not because they offer the best products or even terrific hardware anymore. They primarily made their name in the past, and much of that was due to exemplary customer service and low prices. They still have some pretty good deals, especially if you buy directly from them and get their service along with the product, but they are a shadow of what they used to be IMO. These days you buy Dell because you are not overly picky about the performance and component quality, but primarily because you are ok with making some compromises in exchange for a low price and mostly adequate hardware that will work ok but probably is probably going to cut a few corners in terms of the quality.

If you are only going to use this for the internet and light office applications, it might actually be worth considering something a lot lighter, like a Chromebook. They are pretty capable these days and generally are much less expensive. For browsing and light applications they are totally fine, especially for occasional use. Otherwise something along the lines of what I outlined previously is basically where you want to plant your flag.